It’s exactly one week since the Noelanders Trophy XIV took place at the Centrum voor Duurzaam Bouwen, in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium. It’s a superb venue large and full of light offering a wonderful space to exhibit trees of all size.

I arrived in Belgium ahead of the foul weather on Thursday evening, this afforded me a leisurely start on Friday setting up my trade stand an securing an early slot to have my Exhibition trees photographed by Willy Evenepoel for the Exhibition book. Such is the popularity of the event Willy finished photographing the trees at 2.30am the following morning! As the participants in the exhibition and traders started to arrive and set up it became clear that the weather was going to cause everyone a heap of trouble. It was thick with snow and a VERY cold -8c.

Friday at Noelanders is a mixture of frantic unpacking, setting up and…